1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an applicator end-piece suitable for dispensing at least two products. The end-piece can be particularly advantageous for applying hair dyes, in streaks, to the hair. The invention also provides an applicator end-piece operationally mounted on compartments or receptacles containing products to be distributed, to form a device for packaging and applying at least two products.
2. Discussion of Background
Assemblies are known that propose separate packaging for two products while dispensing them together, with a view to producing a composition, particularly a cosmetic composition, as used, for example, in the hair-dyeing field. This type of assembly allows the extemporaneous mixing of the two products (e.g., a dye and an oxidizing agent) that, for reasons of stability, are kept separate from one another until the dye composition is formed.
Examples of this type of assembly are described in documents US A 2003 0121936 and US A 2003 0019883.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,446,398 teaches end-pieces in the form of a comb that includes an interior channel opening out via a plurality of outlets, with the outlets provided between teeth of the comb. The channel of one such comb is fed with products to be dispensed by way of the mounting of the end-piece on a handle that includes a plurality of reservoirs respectively containing the products. One inlet of the channel, upstream of all the outlets, receives the flows of products emanating from each of the compartments. A mixture is then produced at each inlet of the channel and this homogeneous mixture is dispensed from the outlets.
Thus, when a user wishes to produce highlights in her hair, she can, using known, state-of-the-art devices, produce highlights using one and the same dye composition formed extemporaneously upstream or downstream of the dispensing end-piece and, in such cases, produce highlights of the same color in her hair. However, to provide variations in tone of these highlights it is necessary to very precisely control the respective periods of contact of the mixture on the various locks of hair. The production of gradations of highlights over an entire head of hair thus becomes extremely complex, particularly when the user is producing her own highlights. With these known devices it is, furthermore, practically impossible to simultaneously produce highlights in colors, not just in tints, that are different.
For highlights in colors, end-pieces are known that include a plurality of interior channels each opening out at a different outlet. For example, from the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,462, a portable device is known, for example, in the form of a gun, that includes four receptacles that each include a different dye product. This assembly is put together such that each receptacle is in fluid communication with one or more channels of the comb so that each of the products contained in the receptacles is dispensed separately at at least one or even a plurality of separate orifices.
However, with a portable assembly of this type, the user who wishes to produce gradations of highlights must have purchased or herself prepared the dye compositions in the receptacles such that these compositions are of different tints but tints that are close to one another. Furthermore, the portable assembly will not enable her to widen the palette of colors that can be produced on her hair unless the structure of the assembly is modified, and the modified assembly would then include added-on receptacles and as many, if not more, supplementary dispensing orifices and channels.